When I got the email Saturday afternoon from Judith Gayle about Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Arizona, the news struck me with that same familiar feeling I learned first in the early Sixties when Jack Kennedy was shot. Then Martin Luther King. Then Bobby Kennedy. It’s a body and mind shock, but yes, we kill our leaders. This is part of us. It’s a blow against our nation, and unfortunately as time has gone on, we’ve become used to these blows, maybe even numb.
We like to imagine that we can be a progressive country. On the blue coasts, especially here in the San Francisco Bay area, our community is filled with opinion on what our country should be (progressive) versus what it is. These thoughts can also be dismissive of conservatives living other areas of the country, fiercely protective of their second amendment rights and their resentment of government interference. Their beliefs are as hard-wired into conservative consciousness as a woman’s ownership over her health decisions and equal rights for all is for me, a liberal San Francisco Democrat.
Yet, we all live together under this great roof called the United States, and when we are on our best behavior, we agree to disagree. Even in its birthplace of ancient Greece, democracy was never a quiet affair. It’s a messy cantankerous thing. I do not carry a gun, but I will fight to protect the rights of those who do believe they need to have one, because even though I don’t always agree with everything in the Constitution, I still believe in what it still and must represent. I also believe that its a living document that can evolve with the people who use it to govern themselves.
We live in a country where it can all turn on a dime. All it takes are words, spread like seeds on fertile ground. And for those of us on the ground, words are weapons as much as they are lights to guide us. Democracies, no matter how long they’ve been in existence, are as fragile and strong as the words we use to summon the people to action. How do we bridge the differences between us without the rhetoric that lays the groundwork for more attacks like what happened to Gabrielle Giffords? What can we say to counter the hatred and fear that stirs up emotions like rage and retribution against innocent people with whom we disagree? How can we do this and still protect for all our right to free speech, which is the baseline of our democracy?